County: Kilkenny Site name: The Parade, Gravel or Mayor’s Walk, Canal Square and Canal Walk, Kilkenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: C226; E3463
Author: Patrick Neary, 24 Talbots Inch Village, Freshford Road, Kilkenny.
Site type: Urban, medieval, castle
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 650810m, N 655672m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.649869, -7.249102
Twelve test cuttings were excavated between July and October 2007 in the area around Kilkenny Castle, which is due for a major refurbishment that will include a certain amount of excavation and ground disturbance during the course of the project. Seven of the test cuttings were on the south and west side of the castle on the Parade and the Mayor’s Walk, or Gravel Walk as it was previously known. Five were on the north side of the castle, on Canal Square and Canal Walk.
Cuttings 1 and 3 were located in the area of the backfilled moat around the castle, and Cutting 2 was outside the limit or extent of the backfilled moat. Cuttings 4, 5 and 7 were located in the area where it was considered that some remains of the structures that were demolished to make way for the creation of the Parade, Mayor’s Walk and Rose Garden might be present underground. None were found, however.
Cutting 6 was located near the bottom of the Mayor’s Walk, where it was found that the 3.5m-high Rose Garden wall was built without any foundations extending more than 0.2m beneath ground level.
Cuttings 8 and 9 were in Canal Square, and evidence of earlier cobbled surfaces was found as well as a medieval axehead and a ring brooch. An example of a late 17th-century stone-capped drain to take water away from the base of the Rose Garden wall was also found.
Cuttings 10, 11 and 12 were along the Canal Walk and did not produce any significant finds or features.
